Gators Get Lost In Thicket of Vienna's Vienna Woods

As local country hit singer Mary Chapin Carpenter used to sing, "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."  The MVP Gators played the part of the bug on Saturday, losing 190-230 to Vienna Woods.  The Gators have fallen to 0-2 in the A meet season.

Parker, Andrei, and Clark -- ready for 

some World Cup soccer.  Or swimming.

The meet was close after freestyle, but the Gators led 49-41.  However, Vienna Woods, colorfully nicknamed "the Woods," won backstroke by 22 points and never looked, um, back.  MVP lost breaststroke 39-51 to put the meet out of reach.  A 48-42 win butterfly did not come close to cutting the deficit enough.

Coach Paul points out the pool.  That man

helps the swimmers in so many ways!

It was a moot point as the Gators won only four of the twelve relays.  Underscoring MVP's weird dichotomy in this meet is that both mixed age relays won, which shows that there were strong individual efforts, but not enough depth to overcome the waves of Woods winners and point-scorers.

Levitating above the water is a key

part of MVP A meet warm-ups.

MVP had two sweeps, as the 13-14 boys trio of Sean Jansen, Dom Heratsch, and Collin Sundsted took 1-2-3 in the 50 free.  The 11-12 boys then swept the 50 breaststroke, as Nick Dupuis touched first, Brian McNamara took second, and Parker Blondin came in third.  Of course, underscoring the kind of day it was for MVP, VW had four sweeps.

Three was enough for me, but there's

nothing cuter than 8 & under girls.

Gator heroes on the day were Tyler Dunn, at age 13 years old competing in the 15-18 boy's backstroke race and TJ Heck, at age 11 swimming the 15-18 boys breaststroke.

AFrac leads the team in cheers, and leads 

the team in funny face pictures on the blog.

The boys race of the week was swum by Brian McNamara, who won the 11-12 50 fly by just 0.03 seconds over his VW opponent.  Which capped a day of noteworthy close wins for the Gator boys, as Donovan Kovalsky won his two races by a combined 0.11 seconds (see related article), and Andrei Zaitsev won his backstroke battle by 0.24.  The girls races were not that close as they either won big or. . .didn't win.  Jessie Bricker's relatively comfortable 0.44 win in the 15-18 fly was the closest over a swimmer of the Woods as they used to write in the 15th Century British sports pages.

Tom swings into action.

There were an amazing seven Gator double winners -- swimmers who took first in both of her races.  Double Gator winners were Donovan Kovalsky (free and fly), Juliette Fore (free and breaststroke), Cassidy Bayer (free and fly), Nick Dupuis (free and breaststroke), Sean Jansen (free and breaststroke), Emily Makin (back and fly), and Cameron Morey (back and fly).

Joseph Ienzi, swimming frenzy.

Other Gator winners were Julianna Skopp-Cardillo (rhymes with "bopp-armadillo," not pronounced the silent Spanish double l, but that's just my pet peeve.  And her parent's pet peeve) in the free, Andrei Zaitsev (back), Sara Bertram (back), Taylor Makin (breaststroke), Kevin Adams-Mardi (breaststroke), Sheridan Phalen (fly), Jessie Bricker (fly), Charlie Ruppe (fly), and Brian McNamara (fly).

I know this is a Parker.  Fulghum or Blondin?

If only there were a couple of easy tells,

then this caption might be a little clearer.

(Reporter's Note: If you had told me MVP would finish first in 23 of the 40 individual events and still lost by 40 points, I would have said you were smoking something you found in the wild woods of Vienna.  Editor's Note: Hey -- this is a family publication.  Reporter: I didn't -- and don't -- condone it!)

Colby on the move.  Literally.

The twelve MVP second place finishers were Sheridan Phalen (free), Dom Heratsch (free), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free), Sara Bertram (free), Kenny Krogh (back), Taylor Makin (back), Parker Fulghum (back), Colby Webber (breaststroke), Brian McNamara (breaststroke), Lily Penn (breaststroke), Olivia Blondin (fly), and Liam Orr (fly).

Elle Cullo with an intense breaststroke.

Garnering 19 third place points were Jack Dupuis (free and breaststroke), Lily Palmerino (free), James Piland (free), Andrei Zaitsev (free), Collin Sundsted (free and back), Elaina Phalen (free), Jessie Bricker (free), Matt Makin (back), Olivia Blondin (back), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (back), Torie Bolger (back and breaststroke), Parker Blondin (breaststroke), Carl Questad (breaststroke), Parker Fulghum (breaststroke), Andrew Baker (fly), and Jessica Metter (fly).  

Liam's either doing the dead man's float,

or the butterfly.  I really don't know

all that much about swimming.

Next week, MVP hosts the first of three straight home A meets against the 1-1 Little Rocky Run Stingrays. That's the pool where the Gators broke out in an All-Star Relays eight years ago, capturing the attention of the entire NVSL, finishing tied for 13th in the entire 107 team league despite being down in Division Six.  It was a 150 point improvement from the season before.  Fond memories.

Cyrus, realizing he's going to Carolina

when he should be going to Duke!

Just kidding!  Ha! Ha!  Sort of.

Despite the dastardedly attack

by the water, Torie survived.  

Swimmers of the Week -- Juliette Fore and Donovan Kovalsky

This week's Gator Swimmers of the Week ( or "GSOTWs" as they are commonly referred to) are a pair of double winners -- Juliette Fore and Donovan Kovalsky.

Juliette won both the 9-10 girls 50 meter freestyle and breaststroke.  In both cases, the races were close at the 25 meter mark, and then Juliette blew away her Vienna Woods competitors at the turn to win rather handily.  Juliette took first in the free by 2.36 seconds and first in the breaststroke by 2.5 seconds.

Juliette swims to the fore!  (OK, I used

the same caption last week, but. . .it works!)

Donovan was the bright spot for the 8 & unders this week as he won two thrilling races.  First, he won 25 free by 0.05 seconds over his VW opponent.  Then he bugged another VW swimmer in the 25 fly, taking the race by a comparatively boring 0.06 seconds!  Two wins  by a combined 0.11 seconds -- very exciting racing!

Donovan won his two races

by a combined 0.11 seconds!

Congratulations to this week's GSOTWs.  Swimmers may only win once per season, and those honored are chosen solely at the discretion of the editor.  Complaints may be emailed to circularfile@gmail.com or tweeted to @idontcare.

Two More Team Records Fall

Nick Dupuis and Cassidy Bayer lowered their own team freestyle records on Saturday.

Nick has swum freestyle three times this season, and lowered the Gator record each time.  Nick shaved another 0.33 off his previous week's record, swimming a 29.10 freestyle.  It should also be noted that Nick owns all three boys freestyle records he is eligible for -- the 8 & under, 9-10, and 11-12 records.

Nick at morning.

Cassidy shaved 0.06 seconds off the girls 13-14 freestyle record, swimming the 50 in 26.90.  She had set the team record one year earlier at 26.96 in the second meet of the season.

Cassidy 'stylin her way to lowering

her MVP team freestyle record.

Gator Relays Rock and Roll in Ft. Hunt Sportsman's Meet

by David Reglob
B Meet Correspondent

Out of twelve events, MVP Gator relays garnered a staggering nine first place and two second place finishes on Wednesday at the Ft. Hunt Sportsmen's Relays.  Gator relays won an impressive four in a row to start the meet, and did not look back.

First Place Relays:

• Mixed Age girls team of Bea Heratsch, Juliette Fore, Elaina Phalen, and Torie Bolger
• Mixed Age boys team of Clark Bayer, John French, Dom Heratsch, and Cyrus Adams-Mardi
• 8 & under girls free relay team of Caroline Baker, Delaney Adrian, Cassidy Crowther, and Jill Humphreys.
• 8 & under boys free relay team of Jack Dupuis, Gavin Fore, Tyler Swartz, and Liam Koelsch.
• 9-10/11-12 girl/boy backstroke team of Joseph Ienzi, Joe Humphreys, Olivia Heck, and Emily Atkinson.
• 9-10/11-12 girl/boy fly relay team of Andrew Baker, Colby Webber, Olivia Blondin, Grace McGee.
• 9-10/11-12 girl/boy free relay team of Andrei Zaitsev, Kenneth Krogh, Frances Webber, Elle Cullo.
• Mixed Age Crescendo girl/boy free relay team of Emily Makin, Sheridan Phalen, Cameron Morey, and Kevin Adams-Mardi.
• Off Age Medley girl/boy relay team of Isabella Van Damme, TJ Heck, Cole Snodgrass, and Ian Neal.

Second Place Relays:

• 6 & under/13 & over girl/boy free relay team of Noah Webber, Charlotte Fischer, Emma Jones, and Austin Neal.
• 8 & under girl/boy modified medley relay of Matthew Makin, Katya Zaitsev, Samantha Cowen, and Matthew Foley.

Congrats to all Gator swimmers who participated -- it was a very impressive performance!

Exciting Three-way Monday Night Meet Results in Fast Gator Swims

by David Reglob
B Meet Correspondent

After being jilted by long-time Monday night foe Stratford Rec, team reps Tonda and Jim Phalen had to scramble to fill the hole blown in the schedule.  They cleverly came up with a three-way meet featuring two of the smaller teams in the area -- Lorton Station and Hollin Hills against the largest area team (that's the Gators, for those readers not paying attention!).

A happy Gator awaits her turn

at Clerk of Course, of course!

The meet went off without a hitch, but the most important thing is that many Gators swam fast.  Huge chunks of time were ripped off previous personal bests by Jack Waid, Garo Partoyan, Noah Webber, Jack Alzona, Colin McGuinness, Peter Hannah, Eddie Muir, Jack Hills, Nora Hixson, Madeline Cullo , Ginny Grubbs, Sarah Petz, Josie Cowen, and Sarah Coggeshall in the 8 & under 25 meter freestyle.

Swimming is important, but it's not 

all of what Gator swim is about!

To see all the times, including improvements and, uh, not improvements, click on this link.

To see all of Dave Anderson's great photos from Monday night, click on this link!

Kids never whine "I'm bored" at swim team!

In the 50 meter free, there were significant improvements in times by Joseph Humphreys, Russell Dale, Antonio Marcucci, William Mochel, Colin Miller, Jacob Chidester, Abby Adams, Joseph Ienzi, Chris Kelly, Nicole Booth, Lauren Koelsch, Greta Hannam, Tess Moore, Noah Hannam, and Cole Snodgrass.

"Are you talking to me?  To me?" Robert DeNiro

has competition in the focused look competition.

In the 8 & under 25 meter backstroke, big chunks were taken off by Donovan Kovalsky, Matt Makin, Jackson Foerster, Liam Koelsch, Jack Alzona, Charlie Bruce, Garo Partoyan, Cassidy Crowther, Mikayla Gordon, Samantha Cowen, Kathryn Coggeshall, and Hudson Ward.

Swim serious, cool down delirious!

The 50 back saw big time big-time cuts by Hannah Leslie and Liam Orr.

The 8 & Under 25 breaststroke had more than half second time cuts by Lily Palmerino, Elizabeth Moorman, and Charlie Ruppe.  The 50 meter breaststroke had big time cuts by Cameron Mulla, Bea Heratsch, Lauren Koelsch, Kaitlyn Whalen, Greta Hannam, Tess Moore, and Paige Humphreys.

People who accuse coach Paul of running a Mickey

Mouse outfit have it backwards.  Or upside down.

Big cuts in the the 25 fly were garnered by Donovan Kovalsky, Mikayla Gordon and Elixabeth Moorman. Those who cut at least 0.50 seconds in the 50 fly were Jack Klopson, TJ Heck, Abigail Dittman, Liam Orr, and Noah Hannam.

Don't fear.  This is just Anna's expression on her turn.

She is NOT being attacked by an actual Gator.

(I know, it's kind of hard to tell!)

The beloved IM saw big cuts by Kenny Krogh, Colby Weber, Emily Makin, Juliette Fore, Grace McGee, Elle Cullo, Parker Blondin, Andrei Zaitsev, Andrew Baker, Joseph Ienzi, TJ Hack, Taylor Makin, Julianna Skopp-Cardillo, Olivia Blondin, Olivia Heck, Leigh Kovalsky, Greta Hannam, Kaitlyn Whalen, Frances Webber, Carl Questad, Noah Hannam, Parker Fulghum, Olivia Johansson, Cole Snodgrass, and Anna Capper.

Tyler not quite done with his swim.

Congrats to all who cut any time, but especially those named here who cut lots of time of their previous personal bests!

Nicole focused on the finish.

With three teams swimming, there were a LOT of heats, which means there were a lot of heat winners.  This is based off the results -- if you have different information (like a ribbon), I apologize, but I can only go off the official results.  Gator heat winners were:

Freestyle
Noah Webber, Caroline Baker, Samantha Cowen, Cassidy Crowther, Colby Webber, George Pacious, Russell Dale, Dylan Moore, Juliette Fore, Joseph Ienzi, Julianna Skopp-Cardillo, Cameron Morey, Parker Fulghum, Anna Fracasso, and Mollie Passacantando.  (Yes, Vampire Weekend, I care about an Oxford comma!)

Now there's a Gator with high self-esteem!

Backstroke
Donovan Kovalsky, Jackson Foerster, Lily Palmerino, Will Friedman, Colby Webber, Juliette Fore, Nick McBroom, Abigail Dittman, Emily Atkinson, Frances Webber, Liam Orr, and Molly Cabral.

Clerk of Course: apparently a more

violent workplace than you would think.

Breaststroke
Alexander North, Lily Palmerino, Will Friedman, Russell Dale, Cecilia Morales, Cameron Mulla, Joseph Ienzi, Bea Heratsch, Kaitlyn Whalen, Carl Questad, and Parker Fulghum.

Olivia figures "What the heck, with

a name like this I should swim fast!" 

Butterfly
Donovan Kovalsky, Mikayla Gordon, Elizabeth Moorman, Kenneth Krogh, Jack Klopson, Parker Blondin, Andrew Baker, Liam Orr, and Jessica Metter.

Jill is off to the races.

Individual Medley
Kenneth Krogh, Jack Klopson, Emily Makin, Parker Blondin, Andrew Baker, Taylor Makin, Julianna Skopp-Cardillo, Carl Questad, Emma Jones, Cyrsu Adams-Mardi, and Torie Bolger.

Tommy Kelly does his best impression

of Michael Phelps loosening up

Next Monday is the famed Green & White meet at MVP.  In a controversial move, Vegas bookies have established Green as a 6-5 favorite, while London sports books have White as a 7-5 favorite.  Gambling sharps from all over the country are chartering jets to lay bets in both locales as to cover their money and win either way.  A horse's head was found in one London bookie's bed, but since it was a chess piece from a particularly exciting match the night before, it was not considered to be quite as strong a statement as the scene from Godfather.  (Movie scene not suitable for young children or vegans.)  Although I always wanted to live as a degenerate gambler, I've unfortunately not got the time to jet to London to place bets.  (If you've read this far, I'm impressed!)

Dave Anderson's Photos from the Hollin Hills/Lorton Station Monday Night Meet

https://picasaweb.google.com/113910463653638795868/HollinHillsLortonStationMVPBMeet?authuser=0&feat=directlink

There are a lot of great shots on there.  If you cannot get the link to click thru, please just cut and paste.  Neither Google Plus nor Picasa are particularly user friendly.

If you are new parents to swim team, and you can't spot your child, scrolling through these photos will convince you to get swim caps with names on them next season!

First GIFs of the Season!

Saturday's A Meet


Warm-ups for Time Trials

David Anderson's A Meet photos are posted here

Tons of great photos at the link -- unfortunately you have to copy and paste it:

https://plus.google.com/photos/113910463653638795868/albums/6027809606907754817?gpinv=AMIXal9WJumcb425GLp2B76CMZvE4Hj-YMEoP_brbyyh2NSSfJTYvvq-PVTosgJd3cAuwJYAE5CPsYfAb6vj6B5qHzuQUT1OA6e_RRC7JL-Q6sm6CKvrePI&cfem=1

A sweet moment for the Cappers.

Waiting for the meet -- Elle, Taylor,
Emily, Frances, and Colby

There's a million ways to interpret that look.

What the heck?

Anna swallows a lemon?

I can relate to that guy's confused look.

Andrei implores the swim gods.

A serious moment for Delaney Adrian

29.43 seconds later, Nick will touch

the wall with another team record.

Jack Dupuis in the first event of the new season.

Elizabeth Moorman gets into the 

pre-meet cheers at her first A meet!

Meet Has Too Many Events for Gators To Win

On the way to swimming in his first A meet, seven year old Gavin Fore asked his mom if pools at A meets were longer than at B meets.  Well, it seemed as though he was half right, as lane 4 seemed just a bit longer than lane 3 in the relays.*  Trailing by just four points going into the relays, the Mount Vernon Park Gators won just four of the twelve relays to fall to 0-1 in Division III A Meet competition this season.

* It's a metaphor.  Lanes three and four were of equal length.

Olivia and Anna got their green on!

After trailing at the end of freestyle, MVP took the lead in the backstroke events, and padded that lead in the breaststroke.  Unfortunately, the Donaldson Run Thunderbolts stormed back in the butterfly and relays to win 222-198.

Juliana locked in a tight race

The Gators trailed 41-49 after free, but won back 52-38 to lead 93-87.  A 50-40 win in
the breaststroke pushed the Gator lead to 16 points, but a 34-56 deficit in the fly put the Gators behind to stay.  For statheads interested in numbers, the Gator boys won breaststroke 25-20, as did the Gator girls.  Then, both genders lost fly by an identical 17-28 score.  I know, weird, right?  If you play 25-20-17-28 in the lottery and you win, I want a share of the prize money.  Of course, if you lose, remember the old adage that the lottery is for people who are bad at math, so don't blame me.

Brian took a first in the fly, and

a second in the breaststroke.

Nick Dupuis broke his week-old 11-12 free record, knocking it down from 29.67 to 29.43.  Nick had taken down a 1997 record by just 0.02 at Time Trials, but this time he lowered it again by an emphatic 0.24 seconds.

Katya is into it.  Her teammate. . .

well, something caught her attention too!

For the boys, the race of the week was swum by Kevin Adams-Mardi, who tied for first in the 15-18 boys free with his main Thunderbolt opponent.  For the girls, Lily Palmerino's 0.12 second win in the 8 & under 25 free was the race of the week -- the tightest Gator win over a DR opponent.

Coach Paul looking intense for the first meet.

The only Gator sweep came in the last individual event of the day, as Sara Bertram, Jessie Bricker, and Emily Walzl teamed to go 9-0 in the 15-18 girls fly.

I'm writing the blog, of course I can

put a picture of my own kid in it.

Double Gator winners were Nick Dupuis (free and breaststroke), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and breaststroke), Cameron Morey (back and fly), Emily Makin (free and back), Cassidy Bayer (free and breaststroke), and Sara Bertram (back and fly).

Andrei on the attack.

Individual Gator winners were Lily Palmerino (free), Katya Zaitsev (back), Kenneth Krogh (back), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (back), Colby Webber (breaststroke), Juliette Fore (breaststroke), Taylor Makin (breaststroke), and Brian McNamara (fly).  Gators took first in 21 out of 40 individual events.

Juliette comes to the fore.

Second place points were earned by Jack Dupuis (free and breaststroke), James Piland (free and fly), Sheridan Phalen (free and fly), Colin Sundsted (back), Jessie Bricker (free and fly), Caroline Miller (back), Taylor Makin (back), Parker Fulghum (back), Torie Bolger (back and breaststroke),  Brian McNamara (breaststroke), Sean Jansen (breaststroke), Caroline Baker (breaststroke), Lily Palmerino (fly), Juliette Fore (fly).

Kenny gave his parents

something to Krogh about.

Third place points were scored by Colby Webber (free), Clark Bayer (free), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (free), Sean Jansen (free), Jessica Metter (free), Joseph Humphreys (back), Gus Leyden (back), Donovan Kovalsky (breaststroke and fly), Parker Fulghum (breaststroke), Sarah Jones (breaststroke), Kenneth Krogh (fly), Grace McGee (fly), Andrew Baker (fly), Elaina Phalen (fly), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (fly), and Emily Walzl (fly).

Parker encased in water -- great shot

from our team photographer!

The next Gator meet is at 1-0 Vienna Woods, deep in the forests of Vienna.

Sister looks happier than

Brother to be in this photo.

Swimmers of the Week: Emily Makin & Kevin Adams-Mardi

Kevin Adams-Mardi tied for first in the 15-18 freestyle with a Donaldson Run swimmer with a time of 25.91.  That's not what earned him Swimmer of the Week (although it helped).  Kevin also won the 15-18 50 breaststroke, but that's not what earned him Swimmer of the Week (although it helped).

Kevin flanked by Griffin and Cyrus.

It was him earning those four points in the free by tying for first and finishing ahead of the 3rd and 4th place Donaldson Run swimmers by 0.14 and 0.17 seconds.  Any slower by Kevin, and the Gator boys could have been swept, given the impressive balance of the Thunderbolt swimmers.  Instead, Kevin fought them off and got the tied win.

A fast start to the season for Emily!

Emily Makin was a double winner in 9-10 50 free and back, bringing home impressive wins.  Both of Emily's times are well under last year's All-Star cuts.

Congratulations to both swimmers.

Fast swims at Time Trials Kick Off Summer Swim Season

It was one of the most beautiful days in Northern Virginia history, and a great day for swimming.  Gators got ready for the first A meet of the season at the team's time trials.  Monday night's meet against Waynewood will provide further opportunity to qualify for next Saturday's opening A meet at Donaldson Run.

Two team records a combined 42 year olds were broken -- one barely and one big.  See blog post below for more details.

Age group winners were: Donovan Kovalsky (free and back), Lily Palmerino (free, back, and fly), Colby Webber (free and back), Emily Makin (free, back, breaststroke, and fly), Nick Dupuis (free, back and breaststroke), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (free and breaststroke), Cameron Morey (free, back, and fly), Cassidy Bayer (free and fly), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and breaststroke), Sara Bertram (free, back, and fly), Taylor Makin (back), Jenna Shultz (back and breaststroke), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (back and fly), Tyler Swartz (breaststroke), Caroline Baker (breaststroke), Will Friedman (breaststroke), Sean Jansen (breaststroke), Torie Bolger (breaststroke), Charlie Ruppe (fly), Parker Blondin (fly), Sheridan Phalen (fly),

Two Old Gator Records Fall At Time Trials

A 25 year old record and a 17 year old record were broken yesterday -- one by just 0.02 seconds, and the other smashed by 1.08 seconds.

Nick Dupuis set a new 11-12 boys 50 free record (29.67), the old record was 29.69, set in 1997 by Nick Magallanes.

Kevin Adams-Mardi set a new 15-18 boys 50 breast record (32.77), the old record was 33.85, set in 1989 by Adrian Keller.

Of the 36 boys team records, 19 have now been set this century.